Supervisor tries to get welfare programs to those who need them

Supervisor Mark Farrell's plan would get more people who qualify for welfare programs actually into those programs.

Supervisor Mark Farrell's plan would get more people who qualify...

Every now and then, a San Francisco politician comes up with an idea that’s so seemingly obvious it’s a wonder it wasn’t happening already. Count Supervisor Mark Farrell’s plan to get more people who qualify for welfare programs actually into those programs as one such example.

On Tuesday, the supervisor will propose legislation that requires providers of supportive housing units to “make reasonable efforts” to help tenants enroll in all public benefits programs for which they’re eligible.

The legislation would also require providers to report to the city within six months of a new tenant moving in about all the benefits for which the tenant has applied and is getting — and to provide the city with an annual report on the matter.

The Human Services Agency oversees more than 3,800 supportive housing units for people who used to be homeless, at a cost of $35 million a year.

A November report from the controller’s office found that many supportive housing residents aren’t getting the state and federal public benefits for which they qualify. Just 10 percent of families living in supportive housing receive the state’s CalWORKs benefits for low-income people, for example — which the controller’s report considered very low.

Farrell said it’s become clear that “a vast number of individuals and families” in the city are not getting the benefits they’re entitled to — and that ensuring they get help enrolling will save the city money.

— Heather Knight

Leaving a legacy: Property owners would have a financial incentive to ink long-term leases with “legacy” businesses and nonprofits under a ballot initiative Supervisor David Campos will introduce Tuesday.

The Legacy Business Preservation Fund, which would be on the ballot in November, would offer landlords $4.50 per square foot per year for signing a 10-year lease extension with tenants who qualify for the city’s newly created legacy business registry. In addition, the qualifying businesses themselves could be eligible for a grant of $500 per employee.

The initiative, which would cost the city about $3 million a year, comes as rising rents and proposed housing developments threaten several of the city’s long-standing historic businesses. In the Mission, a property owner is proposing to replace longtime music venue the Elbo Room with nine housing units. In Chinatown, the Empress of China closed at the end of 2014, after 50 years, and brokers have been hoping to draw tech tenants. Two longtime Mission bars serving the LGBT community, Esta Noche and the Lexington Club, shuttered in the past year.

To be considered legacy, a business has to have been in operation for 30 years and have “contributed to the history and identity of the neighborhood,” the legislation states. It also has to maintain its identity, name and culture.

— J.K. Dineen

Finally, school choice: After almost a year of delays and debate, the San Francisco school board will take up a proposal Tuesday to change the school assignment system so that families get a slightly better chance of getting into their neighborhood school.

School board members Rachel Norton and Sandra Fewer initiated the idea a year ago, but decided to hold off on a vote because the district wouldn’t have enough time to implement the change before the assignment process kicked off in the fall.

Currently, families submit a list of schools they want their children to attend. If a school has enough spots for those that want in, there are no issues. But there aren’t enough seats, a complicated tiebreaker system kicks in.

Siblings of students get in first. Families living in census tracts where students post the lowest test scores — or CTIP, for Census Tract Integration Preference — get second priority. Those in the school’s attendance area are third, then everyone else.

Fewer and Norton would flip attendance area and CTIP, giving those in the neighborhood priority over those in low-scoring census tracts. A vote is expected Tuesday at the regular 6 p.m. school board meeting at 555 Franklin St.

— Jill Tucker

Here comes the cash: Campaign money to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars is beginning to flow as the San Francisco Giants push forward with their proposal to build a 28-acre, mixed-use development just south of AT&T Park.

The project, which would be built on city property leased by the Giants, must win approval from San Francisco voters, and the team is collecting signatures to put it on the November ballot. The Giants and backers of the development spent $231,899 between May 11 and 31 to support the planned ballot measure, according to a campaign finance statement filed Friday.

The money could be an early indication of much more funding to come, especially if Supervisor Jane Kim moves forward with her threat to challenge the development with a competing ballot measure seeking more affordable housing for the site.

Staci Slaughter, the Giants’ executive vice president of communications, called the campaign spending for the ballot measure “pretty standard” and attributed it to “literature, signature-gathering, staff time, legal work and accounting.”